Google is really insistent on suggesting you want to listen to Harpur 5/2/70 when you search for this treat of a tape. I suppose that's a testament to how good Harpur is. Ro to dyslexia. Either way I love this show. I always listen to all the Mason's from Dec 69-Feb 70 this time of year and this isn't THE favorite but it's definitely a favorite. They all have their charm. I sometimes wonder if we might have gotten an Alligator>Drums>Eleven, if only because of the way the jam sequence is set up, it's very similar to 2/14/70, but they do seem to be briefly tuning for a note that would be Cryptical. 2/14 was probably them just tired of hearing "ALLIGATOR!" every night for what was technically the 6th show of the Fillmore East run. But Cryptical or Alligator just function like the first 3 minutes of a good Playing in the Band, it's what led into Eleven that's the exciting part we're missing. Either Drums>Other One or straight Drums> Eleven I'd say. Shame it's such a short AUD snippit.

But it's really one of the peak nights jam wise of the late 69/early 70 period for me. I just love these last gasps of The Eleven, they're all played a little differently. This one is fun, and they perfectly nail the rat tat, rat tat tat, rat tat tat tat, TAT! thing after the last vocal! (I know, I didn't do the right number of tats, but they rarely did either.) Then they tumble through the themes wonderfully, really some slick playing for the period, then kind of quietly enter Caution. Though I love how insistent Phil gets, hammering that riff he'd play a lot in Alligator jams. He also takes the lead when the Caution kind of goes off the tracks, nobody is really sure how they're doing the "BUM-BUM-BUUUUM! big crash thing towards the end and he vetoes everybody's ideas. But they make up for the kind of weak slip out of Caution with a nice jump into the NFA which has that really nifty end and almost Swiss watch transition into the Cumberland groove. And it's all on one of those great Bear mixes from that period. I've always liked how bright a lot of them sound, especially with the way he mic'd and mixed the drums. The master of this probably sounds a little better but it's a great tape, always been on my list of ones to listen to every year on or around their TDIH.

What we have of Fillmore West 2/5/70 is composed of two tapes. The first (from Seasons to Mason’s) was made with a mic placed on stage, by the band or anyways with their cooperation -- state of the art (remember that directional mics hadn’t been invented yet; this was an omni.

The second tape is from a soundboard reel of the last fifty minutes of the show and encore -- incendiary jamming throughout, primo Grateful Dead.

At this four-show Fillmore West run they were playing one long set of 90+ minutes. Bigfoot opened, then Taj Mahal with Jesse Edwin Davis in his band.

These two tapes together are probably about 15 minutes short of the Dead's complete Thursday show. Seasons of My Heart wasn’t necessarily the first song. A similar short folksy tune or two might have preceded it.

When the Eleven cuts in they are blazing along in high gear and have been at it for at least five or six minutes. In the pause after Mason's the tuning sounds like Cryptical (around 8:44 on track #13). My guess is that after Mason's Children,

Cryptical Envelopment > drums > The Other One > The Eleven/

is what’s missing from our tape of 2/5/70, which cuts in when The Eleven jam out of The Other One is well advanced. This is prime Eleven jamming; the move around 6:30 is choice.

The next night (2/6/70) they play Cryptical > Drums > Other One > but take it back into > Cryptical. This runs over 20 minutes, roughly what our 2/5/70 tapes are short. But whatever they were playing before the Eleven cuts in, they had been building up a full head of steam for quite a time.

It’s good to have the complete Mason’s Children included separately as track #13. It’s far and away the best performance of Mason’s that we have on tape.

That’s Pigpen with the claves on Uncle John.

Possibly I saw this show, or another from this run.

What a cozy little winter delight this is...I, too, prefer the warm, muffled, though-the-washing-machine-a-few-times rickety racket of this presentation - doesn’t sound like your typical ‘70 aud...now, that transfer to the electric Mason’s is, yes, treble-jarring but electric Dead in 1970 is so disarmingly sweet you get right into it, and there’s a lot to love here with the jam out of Caution all the way through to that gorgeous UJB.

So, yeah, this will never be 2/13, but what else is? There’s something special here.

A partial show exists from what may have been an even better one (sheflinm has the real setlist, below). It was moved downtown from the night before at Family Dog (the one that has the jam with Santana, featured on Night at the Family Dog DVD, and the Download Series official release), for the start of a 4-night run at the Fillmore West (out of 5 at home). This run was immediately followed by 6 shows in 3 days at the Fillmore East (the shows on Bear's Choice & Dick's 4). Feb 7 has the cool Rider (on the Fillmore 69 box) and the stellar Black Peter. Between Mason's and The Eleven there's probably a missing Other One Suite y quien sabe qué más? In the B & P days this showed up sometimes as undated filler.

First Set. Jer plays pedal steel on two George Jones songs. It's said that after Jer picked up a pedal steel in Colorado he wanted a couple showcase songs, but the idea didn't last (with extra setup and because it was featured in the NRPS anyway). Seasons was played only five times - all but one in this 1-month period. It's a curio and not very Dead-ish. Too bad we only have AUD for Race is On. Big Boss Man is not the best but still good and suggests there's more SBD somewhere. Black Peter was, at this point, just starting to stretch out. This is one of the longest starts for Mason's Children which is creaky then better. The cut in the hot The Eleven frustrates but the following jam makes up for it. GDtRFB has a China Cat riff except Jer is playing Bobby's part. Cumberland is solid.
Overall = B- / 3 stars

Highlights:
The great sequence from The Eleven to Caution is the point of this date.

SOURCES: The hanno is the best source - the one that's been compiled and corrected, allowing us to piece together the set list. Black Peter is pitched 3% too fast. For Seasons of My Heart through Black Peter the cousin it source [posted as 2/8] has better clarity but it's pitched 2% too fast. Big Boss Man is a bonus on Bear's Choice.

Because someone posted another set list of unclear origin, and because the gap in time between Mason's Children and The Eleven probably can't be long enough to accommodate it, this is from Deadlists:

Seasons Of My Heart
The Race Is On
Big Boss Man
Black Peter
Mason's Children
Cryptical Envelopment >
Drums >
The Other One >
The Eleven >
Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks) Jam >
And We Bid You Good Night Jam >
Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks) >
Not Fade Away >
Cumberland Blues

+
Uncle John's Band [7:30]

Seasons of my Heart= pretty rare.
(but you can find better sound quality)

From Mason's on with the Soundboard
is a headlight
on a NORTHBOUND TRAIN...
A serious amount of jamming here!

Perhaps the most underrated set of February 1970, there is some remarkable music in here. Fantastic interplay during Mason's, especially the second instrumental which features some amazing work from Lesh and Weir. The Eleven is engaging though fairly non-descript, but the gorgeous thematic jamming out of the song is truly wonderful (sounds like there's an unlisted China Cat jam/tease in there also). Caution is a smoking rendition, with NFA ending with a cool reprise of the Caution theme, before heading into a typically strong 1970 Cumberland to close out this great little set!

The Eleven>Caution dazzles.

Set 1: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Big Boss Man, Black Peter, Mason's Children, The Eleven, Not Fade Away, Cumberland Blues, Uncle John's Band

Set 2: Smokestack Lightning, Morning Dew, Dire Wolf, Me & My Uncle, Sitting on Top of The World, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, It Hurts Me Too, Dark Star > St. Stephen > Not Fade Away > St. Stephen, Lovelight

I have been completely addicted to this version of The Eleven ever since it was featured as Jam of the Week at dead.net.

The China Cat Sunflower and Bid You Goodnight snippets are a delight. Overall this version is really delightfull, it starts so laid-back before going on to the usual madness. And the vocals are crystal clear too.

And there's also Pigpen playing organ, something not very common around this time, when he used to sit out in most of the complex songs. To me, to hear him play organ in The Eleven brings me to tears as it reminds me of the innocent pre-TC years when he was a fully working member (and not just someone that would stand behind a pair of congas most of the show)

While flawed on many levels & at many points, the energy of this is undeniably magical, particularly the NFA > Cumberland and the ending of the at first tentative Uncle John's Band. For me this is enough to elevate it to four stars, and if the rest of the show had been this good it would be off the chart. I actually prefer the warm, phasing AUD patches to the SBD, which has way too much treble, fixable with some EQing.

Ahh, to hear what happens between Mason's Children and The 11. Of all the Dead show tape flip space outs, this ranks among the most vexing. Spoiler alert: 11 goes all bid you goodnight with a touch of china cat before committing to a classic, late-McKernon Caution.

Jerry jam a very New Speedway Boogie type jam in the middle of Big Boss Man, would've made an interesting sandwich.

Description does NOT match the Playlist. The first 4 tracks and the last track are poor quality recordings (Audience). Mason's Children is recorded twice, the first time is a clean soundboard track, the second time (last track) is a poor (audience) track. Mason's Children through Uncle John's Band is soundboard quailty and worth having. The rest is optional. It's mind over matter. If you don't mind...it don't matter.

Make sure you get a copy of the poster for this show by clicking the Deadlists Projects link and clicking POSTERS and copying it. MUSHROOM...I can say no more...

Thank you for sharing your shows with all of us, thanks for the love. Acts of Kindness make the world a better place for everyone. Thanks for the love, I will pass it on.

oh my good lord...i always liked the mason's from jan 2, 1970 but this has to be a new favorite...what a fantastic mix on the drums...this mason's just pops and crunches and jitters like crazy...if you're just passing by be sure to dig this version! it goes to an AUD or degraded SBD at the end but you still have to hear it!

i love mason's children because my name is mason

It appears that this set list is wrong,however Deadlist.com appears to have it right

Race is on and a couple of others. Mason's Children - The song list is completely wrong The Eleven>Caution>NFA and both rock.

Previous reviewer, you ain't kiddin'!

Quite possibly.

This is a great show (pity you don't get the full show), if you have heard Dick's Picks 4, you will hear a load of the themes from this run at the Fillmore West developed fully. Thank God for the archive!
The first four songs come from an OK sounding audience recording (OK for a 34 year old recording that is), and apart from the tail end of Mason's Children, the rest is from an almost crystal clear sound board recording (the bass is a bit low in the mix, in my opinion).
Worth a listen!

I didn't hear China>Rider and there's some filler here I believe. Also, some of the tracks are muddy for a SBD with dead spots. But hey its 1970, can't complain. That being said, this show simply smokes. It's so good that you should disregard anything I said about the sound. Its GD at their very best. 69/70 was a grate period for such a prolific band. This is testament to that. Enjoy =)